Maleficent, A Story of Redemption

"I want my villains to remain villains, I can't have them change and become good." So stated my 17 year old granddaughter as we drove to see Disney's "Maleficent" a few weeks ago. "It just really bothers me," she moaned.

I understood her point, having your images of right and wrong change, so that the icon of wrong is now right or what was right is now wrong, can be disconcerting, but I explained to her that I couldn't agree with her. Last night we took some other grandchildren to the show, and I still feel the same way, "Maleficent" is a wonderful story of redemption.

Maleficent, emotionally destroyed by the one she loved most, became so blinded by anger, she cursed an innocent child as retaliation against her father. But after 16 years of bathing in the unconditional love of the child she despised, Maleficent's heart softened. She felt compassion, repentance and ultimately true, unselfish love for Aurora.

As the Cold War wound down in the 1980's, I heard some critics say, "Who will the United States hate now?" I was wounded at the implication that we had to have an enemy, that people had to have a common foe to galvanize against. Why, I asked, couldn't we have common ambitions that were positive, edifying and uplifting? But it seems that is not the case.

The natural man loves to be superior. In order to be superior, someone else needs to be inferior. We create social orders, caste systems and pecking orders so that someone else is always less than us. Then to maintain the status quo, we teach the less capable they can never change, they can never rise above their station, for as long as they remain in their place, we maintain our place.

I once heard that there is a little bit of good in the worst of us and a little bit of bad in the best of us. 

The ultimate goal of our loving Heavenly Father is for all of us to return to live with him in happiness and joy. He even gave his Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our mistakes and transgressions so we could ultimately overcome mortality.

No one is beyond the power of redemption.

• Not the jilted fairy who in anger evokes a curse she later regrets.
• Not the psychotic abuser who became so twisted that joy was found in the pain of others.
• Not the abused child who uses drugs or alcohol to dull the pain and finds themselves a homeless addict.
• Not the prostitute, drug dealer, rapist, liar, or thief.
• Not the greedy, the proud, the arrogant, or malicious.

The path back is different for each, just as the path to their situation was different. If Lucifer, the Devil himself, had a change of heart and truly wanted to repent of his transgressions, our Father and his Beloved Son would gladly embrace him and help him return.

Christ taught  the Nephites, "Nevertheless, ye shall not cast [others] out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent."  

Rather than cementing our icons of good and evil on the people we meet, we should always be willing to extend the hand of faith and friendship to everyone, regardless of how far they have strayed; for we "know not but what they will return and repent," and then "how great shall be [our] joy with them in the kingdom of [our] Father".